k....Tucson is the sickest mission ever. It is SOOOOOOO wonderful. My comps are so tight. Elder Stokes has been out for 21 months and is super awesome and Elder Carter is this super tall guy and awesome, and they are both funny and I am SOOOO LUCKY AND HAPPY to be here with them. We have the funnest time in the entire world. So right when I got there they picked me up and we had to go to Walmart to get me some food, so I got PB&J and that bulk cereal, the same stuff they have at the mtc. Anyways, we met this inactive member who wanted to talk to us outside Walmart and I GAVE her a Book of Mormon, my first one :) It was fantastic!! She didn't have one so we went back to the car and got her one, yup. It's really weird cause like everyone I've seen here, like my comps and the AP's, I feel like I've seen them before, creepy huh?! Anyways after Walmart we went to this trailer park..oh ok, so i live in the ghetto. and we tract in the ghetto, kinda sketch, but super fun ya know, cause I love dogs and stufffff, pitbulls, everyone has em, especially all the black people that live around here, which there are many, especially where we try to tract...its kinda hard to find Mexicans sometimes...oh and that dog beeper thing...doesn't work hahaha the dogs are crrrrrrrazy here, evil crazy, but I'm protected :) anywayyyyyyyyys, we went and knocked this trailer park and talked to this guy Marcos and he was super cool and we taught him a little then gave him a Book of Mormon. We went back the next day but he wasn't there. After Marcos though we went and taught Maria, who is a progressive investigator kinda, she reads but we don't think she really understands. She's illegal and has no car, so nobody wants to take here to church cause of legal problems and stuff, and this is a problem. It's hard to explain. We taught her and I gave a spiritual thought and a prayer porque estoy un GRINGO. The Mexicans love to make fun of my hair I think. I can understand most of what they're saying, even though they think I can't understand anything ;P It's fun. We went over to the district presidents house to eat, I think hes the district president, and we had this weird meat stuff and beans, and accccctually it was really good and I liked it, you should be proud of me :) Then we went to Maria's house (one of the seriously like 5 Marias) we're teaching) and she is doing well. We got her to come to church this Sunday. She has tons of crazy family problems. I'm so happy and lucky I have none of that. It's so sad to see, and we see it alllll the time here, usually the husbands are drunks, it's super sad. Anyway Maria has the cutest little girls and it was one of their birthdays the next day so we went and got a cake the next day....coolest cake ever!! It was a bell cake, like bell from the Beauty and the Beast, and it was super awesome, and I took a picture with it and I'll send it :) if i can find a computer that will let me, cause these computers are weird. But it was an awesome cake and she was super excited when we gave it to her :) I once again shared a spiritual thought with her and said the prayer and said some stuff in English cause she spoke both. I'm still working on the Spanish hah...the coolest black lady lives beneath out apartment...like on the bottom floor. She's this retired huge black lady and she lives with her daughter and her daughters little girl, who is the cutest little girl ever. We go and talk to them all the time. They just got a new dog...ya it bit me suuuuuprise suuuuuuprise, but it didn't hurt cause its a puppy...but still... on Thursday we went tracting for 3 hours ...oh it's always like over 100 here by the way = death... and tracting was super fun, we talked to some crazy interesting people. OKAY SO MY FIRST DOOR I KNOCKED...guess what....i knocked into a Buddhist temple...a budddddhist temple....like random right? The middle of a Mexican neighborhood there is this "house" that is NOT a house and its a Buddhist temple. This place was crazy, a MONK answered the door!! and invited us in and they had this fat Buddha shrine in the corner with all this stuff hahahaha it was so funny... after that we talked to this Cuban guy for like an hour and a half about his whole life story. We also walked with this teenage kid for like a mile and then gave him a pass along card. There are Catholic churches and other random churches everywhere here, its crazy!! there are so many!! I had to go to Target to get a pillow, I sleep on the ground in my tiny apartment on a mattress, but its really not that bad at all and it's like camping and really fun and i love it! I LOVE Tucson!...i cant wait to get to Mexico though, that'll be a crazy adventure, except for the mail part, that'll be lame....speaking of mail this was a sad week cause I haven't heard or gotten letters or anything from anyone in like over a week, you guys forgot about me already!! :P hahaha just kiddin here is my new address
3727 East 5th Street
APT #211
Tucon AZ 85716
ya sooooooooooooooooooooooo that's my address, don't forget about me k ;) We taught 2 lessons at the church here one night, it was really good. I shared the spiritual thought and stuff again. We teach this guy Hector, he needs and wants to get baptized, but he has to get married first, so he's doing that in like 3 weeks, but he has SUCH a strong testimony. He sat in with us on teaching the Garcia family, this investigator family, and he pretty much taught the entire time hahah and i could understand almost all of it. It was sweet hah, the Garcia family is SUPER awesome!! They have been coming to church for about 3 months but they just need to get baptized and make that decision! They have 3 boys and a girl. Their little boy is the cutest little kid ever. He just tries to climb all over me and is crazy and runs around. He's like 2...during the lesson I had to give him a origami crane (bird) to keep him occupied haaha the kids love my cranes. I also spent a while teaching my comps how to make cranes as well :) When we taught the Garcia's a couple nights later, I entertained their kids with Elder Stokes while a member and Elder Carter taught the lesson. it was like a family home evening kinda thing, but not really. The Garcia's like love me though hahaha and the mom was like, you guys need to come every time :P So I taught all the kids how to make cranes and stuff, and the little girl loved it, shes super cute. She got out her new ds Nintendo thingy and was showing us all this stuff hahah it was fun :) and I played like hot wheels kinda, pretty much pushing the car back and forth, with their little kid and stuff, it was great. The Garcia parents learned a lot that night and the spirit was super strong, they loved us being there, and then we all did a huge group kneeling prayer at the end like we always do and then just waited after to see how they felt and the spirit was soooo strong, and we challenged them again but they are still undecided hah, they haaaaaaaaaaave to get baptized, and I think they will in a couple weeks! I'm so excited! Their kids love church and stuff, and on Sunday Elder Stokes and I sat by them and Stokes gave them candy and we kinda kept them quiet during the meeting...the Spanish meetings are funny, cause i can't understand EVERYTHYING, but pick up on most of it haha so its funny what i get out of it sometimes. I said the prayer in gospel principles though ;) hahah and priesthood, it was great :) and I introduced myself a lot and told them where I was from. I met a lot of the people in the ward. I love the ward, everyone is so nice. We went to In n Out one of the nights, best thing evvvvvvvvvver. A member gave us money cause she couldn't make dinner so we went to in n out :) it was fantastic!! We teach people all the time. It's so fun. There is so much going on. This isn't even half of it. I'll just tell ya my favorite and the coolest things and crazy stuff ;P It's really just SOO awesome though, and I love my companions and we have soooooooo much fun sweating our brains out in the heat :) Last night we stayed up...late...hahah playing "spades"with GG the big black lady, it was soo much fun, and we played Jenga with her granddaughter and she kept wrecking it and we had to set it up again hahahah it was fun though. I think her granddaughter loves me though. She kept hugging me and making kissy faces at me and she's like 3 or 4 or something hahaha I was like nooooooooooooooooooo not good haha, but its really fun. GG is the nicest lady ever and loves the missionaries. Well actually just us cause she loves Carter and the Spanish missionaries but she got taught by the English missionaries and she didn't like them at all :/ kind of a bummer. Elder Christopherson came on Saturday and talked with us and I met him. He gave a goooood talk, and a bunch of the 70's spoke too. It was great :) I took notes in my journal mother, don't worry :) the other day we helped these Mexicans get into their car cause they locked the keys inside and the handle was broken but the window was kinda down, but we ended up helping them for like an hour, and then I went to a dumpster and got a hanger to help em out and we came back and other people started helping too, then an hour into it this black guy finally takes the hanger and unlocks the door with it under the window hahahaha so funny, then we made friends with the big Mexican cholos who's car it was and left...its actually a really long story and super funny but i don't think i have time to tell the whole thing hahaha..oh and it was at the gas station, and we were at the gas station cause we go and get thirst busters, which are huuuuge slurpies of every flavor all the time cause its so hot here and they are only 79 cents!! Its awesome!! Because we helped those people, we were late to tracting at this one place...but it was meant to be...cause i contacted this lady right when she was getting home and was just getting out of her car, and we talked to her for like 30 minutes!! She got us some water and we taught her the first lesson and invited her to church. She said she was going to come!!!!! and we gave her a Book of Mormon and a contact card!! It was meant to be!!! It's a miracle :) It is so crazy how things like that happen. It's totally the Lord that makes it happen. I love it, and I'm sure there are going to be many mannnnnnnnnnny more of those experiences :) Well, I think that's all I can remember. There is sooooooooo much to tell you ... just know I LOOOOOVE TUSCON!!! It's the best, even though it's hot, there are pitbills and the Mexicans make fun of me cause I'm red cause I get burned through the thick 3 inches of sunscreen I lather on my face everyday. But, I LOVE MY MISSION!!! and my companions!!! and i still cant wait to get my visa, but for the time being, I don't think it could get any better!!!! You guys got my address :) I'd loooooooooooooooove to hear from all of you...especially one of you ;) I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND EVERYONE ELSE!!!! I cant wait to hear from you!!! I love the gospel. I love everything about it!!!
ELDER BERTHAAAAAA
